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Grex > Poetry > #245: The Spring Mysterious Quote item |  |
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| 25 new of 215 responses total. |
oddie
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response 75 of 215:
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Apr 11 11:11 UTC 2001 |
All right... I suspect that this is much too familiar to be a good quote for
the game, but what the hell...
I'm not saying I will, but I could go on for hours escorting the reader--
forcibly, if necessary--back and forth across the Paris-Chinese border. I
happen to regard the Laughing Man as some kind of super-distinguished ancestor
of mine--a sort of Robert E. Lee, say, with the ascribed virtues held under
water or blood. And this illusion is only a moderate one compared to the one
I had in 1928, when I regarded myself not only as the Laughing Man's direct
descendant but as his only legitimate living one. I was not even my parents'
son in 1928 but a devilishly smooth impostor, awaiting their slightest blunder
as an excuse to move in--preferably without violence, but not necessarily--to
assert my true identity. As a precaution against breaking my bogus mother's
heart, I planned to take her into my underworld employ in some undefined byt
appropriately regal capacity. But the *main* thing I had to do in 1928 was
watch my step. Play along with the farce. Brush my teeth. Comb my hair. At
all costs, stifle my natural hideous laughter.
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brighn
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response 76 of 215:
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Apr 11 13:47 UTC 2001 |
Give it up, Ignatz, you're alone in this argument, and you're wrong.
"Excerpt" has "slight" in its meaning as much as "quote" does: It doesn't.
In fact, many magazines run "excerpts" of novels -- calling them that -- that
generally constitute whole chapters, or chapter-length amounts.
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orinoco
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response 77 of 215:
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Apr 11 16:05 UTC 2001 |
That first sentence couldn't be anyone but Salinger, could it? I'm gonna
guess that this is one of the Nine Stories that I've forgotten about.
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oddie
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response 78 of 215:
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Apr 11 20:01 UTC 2001 |
bugger, I knew it was too easy. :-) Yes, it's "The Laughing Man," one of the
less bizarre of the Nine Stories. Next time I'll have to find something more
obscure. your turn...
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orinoco
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response 79 of 215:
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Apr 11 21:45 UTC 2001 |
It would be unjust, however, to represent his interest in Mrs. A as a matter
of calculation. It was as instinctive as love, and it missed being love by
just such a hair-breadth deflection from the line of beauty as had determined
the curve of Mrs. A's lips. When they met she had just published her first
novel, and G, who after ward had an ambitious man's impatience of
distinguished women, was young enough to be dazzled by the semi-publicity it
gave her. It was the kind of book that makes elderly ladies lower their
voices and call each other "my dear" when they furtively discuss it; and G
exulted in the superior knowledge of the world that enabled him to take as
a matter of course sentiments over which the university shook its head.
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sekari
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response 80 of 215:
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Apr 15 08:47 UTC 2001 |
sounds vaguely like Collete
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orinoco
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response 81 of 215:
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Apr 15 18:55 UTC 2001 |
Nope.
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orinoco
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response 82 of 215:
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Apr 20 15:49 UTC 2001 |
Looks like it's time for some prodding. I'll have a hint or a second quote
this evening.
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orinoco
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response 83 of 215:
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Apr 21 17:48 UTC 2001 |
Here's another quote, from a bit of a better-known work:
The first thing that passed was the long look they exchanged: searching on
his part, tender, sad, undefinable on hers. As the result of it he said:
"Why, then, did you consent to the divorce?"
"To get the boy back," she answered instantly; and while he sat stunned by
the unexpectedness of the retort, she went on: "Is it possible you never
suspected? It has been our whole thought from the first. Everything was
planned with that object."
He drew a sharp breath of alarm. "But the divorce -- how could that give him
back to you?"
"It was the only thing that could. We trembled lest the idea should occur
to you. But we were reasonably safe, for there has only been one other case
of the same kind before the courts." She leaned back, the sight of his
perplexity checking her quick rush of words. "You didn't know," she began
again, "that in that case, on the remarriage of the mother, the courts
instantly restored the child to the father, though he had -- well, given as
much cause for divorce as my unfortunate brother?"
D. gave an ironic laugh. "Your French justice takes a grammar and a
dictionary to understand."
She smiled. "_We_ understand it -- and it isn't necessary that you should."
Both quotes have been from novellas by this author, whose more famous novels
I've never actually gotten around to reading.
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remmers
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response 84 of 215:
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Apr 30 22:04 UTC 2001 |
(I don't think people know this...)
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orinoco
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response 85 of 215:
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May 1 03:24 UTC 2001 |
I'm noticing that.
More hints, or should I just hand the floor to someone else?
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remmers
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response 86 of 215:
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May 1 10:14 UTC 2001 |
I'd go for hints before giving up.
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orinoco
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response 87 of 215:
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May 2 18:50 UTC 2001 |
Um. Okay. This is from an author who grew up fabulously wealthy in New
York. She took up writing on her doctor's advice, to relieve the stress of
her marriage. Apparently it didn't work, since she moved to France to
escape from her husband, eventually got a divorce, and kept on writing,
eventually making a name for herself as a novelist.
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lynne
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response 88 of 215:
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May 2 19:09 UTC 2001 |
Edith Wharton?
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orinoco
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response 89 of 215:
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May 5 01:25 UTC 2001 |
Ding! Thank you!
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lynne
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response 90 of 215:
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May 5 17:15 UTC 2001 |
cool! I've never gotten one right before. will have to go find something
quoteable now, huh?
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remmers
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response 91 of 215:
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May 5 22:59 UTC 2001 |
That's the concept, yes.
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lynne
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response 92 of 215:
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May 7 20:49 UTC 2001 |
okey...sorry about the delay. could've sworn I had this book lying around;
as it is I had to go look up the quote I wanted:
"But the author of *Primrose Dalliance* said that with the Book of the Moment
crows, what counted was Personal Pull--surely they remembered that Hepplewater
had married Walter Strawberry's latest wife's sister. The author of *Jocund
Day* agreed about the PUll, but though that in this instance it was political,
because there was some powerful anti-Fascist propaganda in *Mock Turtle* and
it was well known that you could always get old Sneep Fortescue with a good
smack at the Blackshirts.
"'But what's *Mock Turtle* about?' inquired Harriet. On this point, the
authors were for the most part vague; but a young man who wrote humorous
magazine stories and could therefore afford to be wide-minded about novels,
said he had read it and thought it rather interesting, only a bit long. It
was about a swimming instructor at a watering-place, who had contracted such
an unfortunate anti-nudity complex through watching so many bathing-beauties
that it completely inhibited all his natural emotions. So he got a job on
a whaler and fell in love at first sight with an Eskimo, because she was such
a beautiful bundle of garments. So he married her and brought her back to
live in a suburb, where she fell in love with a vegetarian nudist. So the
husband went slightly mad and contracted a complex about giant turtles, and
spent all his spare time staring into the turtle-tank at the Aquarium, and
watching the strange, slow monsters swimming significantly round in their
encasing shells. But of course a lot of things come into it-it was one of
those books that reflect the author's reactions to Things in General.
Altogether, significant was, he thought, the word to describe it. Harriet began
to feel that there might be something to be said even for the plot of *Death
'twixt Wind and Water.* It was, at least, significant of nothing in
particular."
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davel
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response 93 of 215:
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May 8 12:49 UTC 2001 |
Dorothy L. Sayers!
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davel
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response 94 of 215:
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May 8 12:50 UTC 2001 |
(I believe that the quote is from _Gaudy_Night_, for what it's worth.)
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lynne
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response 95 of 215:
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May 8 14:44 UTC 2001 |
right on both counts! (hmph. didn't think it was *that* easy.) <shrug>
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aruba
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response 96 of 215:
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May 8 19:55 UTC 2001 |
Ack. And I actually quoted from that same book in the mystery quote before,
but I didn't remember anything about nudist vegetarians. You'd think that
would stick in my mind.
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sekari
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response 97 of 215:
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May 8 21:06 UTC 2001 |
I thought it sounded vaguely like dorothy sayers, but for some reason that
seemed too obvious of a choice.
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davel
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response 98 of 215:
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May 9 12:43 UTC 2001 |
Well, I'm pretty familiar with the book (though it's probably been a decade
since I last read it). I have to admit that for the first bit I was muttering
"I *know* this quote, but who is it?" ... until about the time the name
"Harriet" appeared; I was getting it, but the name confirmed it.
A quote should appear in due course. I don't have anything suitable at hand.
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lynne
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response 99 of 215:
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May 9 14:52 UTC 2001 |
It *is* an excellent book quotewise. Very little of what I read these days
is suitable for quoting: either too trite or too well-known. (Or too
esoteric except that eeyore, flem, or swa is certain to recognize it, which
defeats the whole purpose, eh?)
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